210 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[45.] 2. Erythaca (Sialia) Wilsonii. (Swainson.) Common Blue-bird. 



Genus, Erythaca. Sub-genus, Sialia, Swainson. 



The Blue Redbreast (Rubecula dorso cceruleo). Edwards, pi. 24. 



Motacilla Sialis. Linn. 



The Blue-backed Redbreast. Penn. Arot. Zool., ii., p. 298, No. 281. 



The Blue-bird. Wilson, L, p. 50, pi. 3, f. 5. Male. 



Oenanthe sialis. Vieillot. 



Saxicola sialis. Bonap. Syn., p. 89, No. 143. 



Sialia Wilsonii. Swains. Zool. Journ., iii., p. 173. 



This richly-coloured bird, which has all the familiarity of the English Redbreast, 

 without its pugnacious disposition, is a great favourite in America, where it is 

 customary to fix up boxes in the farm-yards and gardens for its accommodation. 

 A few individuals winter in the southern States, and some remain in the western 

 territories all the year, in as high a latitude as 41j ; but greater numbers seek 

 a southern retreat in winter. Should the weather in February be open, the Blue- 

 bird is occasionally seen in Pennsylvania ; but it is not until the middle of March 

 that he is observed, with his mate, reconnoitring the condition of his old breeding- 

 places. He is found in the summer throughout North America to the eastward, 

 and perhaps to the westward, of the Rocky Mountains, up to the forty-eighth 

 parallel of latitude, beyond which he was not seen by the Expedition. On the 

 approach of winter he moves to the southward, but does not entirely leave Penn- 

 sylvania till the middle or end of November. He feeds in summer on coleop- 

 terous insects, spiders, &c, and in the autumn on berries of various kinds. His 

 song is an agreeable warble, which at the close of the season changes to a 

 single plaintive note. The nest is built in the hole of a tree, or in a box erected 

 on purpose. The female lays five or six eggs, of a bluish-green colour, and 

 brings forth two or three broods in a season, the male assisting her in rearing the 

 young. The eggs measure Hi of an inch in length. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen, procured at Penetanguishene. 



Colour of the whole upper plumage intermediate between azure and china-blue (a consi- 

 derably darker hue than that of Sialia arctica). Shafts of the quills and tail dull umber- 

 brown. Under surface. — Throat, neck, breast, and flanks bright orange-brown. Belly and 

 vent white. Tail beneath flax-flower blue. Bill and legs pitch-black. 



